Paul Walsh, the Irish Opportunist

I read a scary quote on Joe Drumgoole’s blog today. It’s from Director General of the IVCA. (original article can be found on Silicon Republic),

Most of our investments would be in software firms that can grow to scale, not in dot.com companies or because someone has a nice widget … Funding in Irish companies is at its highest now since 2001, but much of these are follow-on investments in existing companies. There is still a lot of work to be done in raising money to seed new start-ups. Venture capitalists are currently raising money but it’s debatable how much of these funds will go into new plays in the next five years.

This is one of the few reasons why wubud, my latest venture, is based in the UK and not Ireland. Not every dot.com company is based on a widget. Follow-on investments is much less risky than investing in few startups. I’m pretty sure the Irish VCs removed ‘venture’ from Venture Capital.